Tree of the month....Native Black Poplar

[Giles Hill]

This thread is for the rare and beautiful wonky Native Black Poplars NOT nasty straight hybrid poplars.

 

Here's some facts I copied from Black Poplar | RFS :

 

 

The native black poplar, Populus nigra betulifolia, is a rare British tree which until recently had been almost forgotten by foresters and naturalists for 150 years.

 

The native black poplar lapsed from being a useful producer of materials for the agricultural community before 1800 into almost complete obscurity by the mid twentieth century.

 

The timber was used for wagon bottoms and stable partitions and even buffers on early railway carriages because it can withstand shock loads well.

 

Material from pollards was used in basket making and for stakes, rails, scaffold poles and rafters. Smaller material was used for faggots for burning in ovens. Early summer shoots were cut from pollards and dried for winter fodder.

 

Its existence today is almost entirely due to its economic value in the medieval economy and its ability to regenerate from fallen trees, branches and damaged roots in the few relict riverside sites where it survives.

 

Originally a tree of flood plains and river banks, the natural habitat of the native black poplar has practically disappeared, largely destroyed by river drainage works.

 

So many different poplar hybrids have been planted in Britain during the last two hundred years that no forester, nurseryman or botanist can be expected to identify them all. To confuse the issue, the native tree displays a degree of variation or plasticity as well.

 

But the distinctive shape and large size of the native black poplar - often growing alone by a farm in a lowland English river valley - are a give-away to anyone familiar with it.

 

Many species of tree have both male and female flowers on the same plant - they are called monoecious. But black poplar is dioecious - individual trees are either male or female. There are only a few hundred female trees in Britain and not many of these are growing alongside males. Natural seedlings are virtually unknown.

 

Markets for most of the above have disappeared or are now supplied by substitutes but apart from being a magnificent fast-growing landscape tree, the native black poplar may have a bright future for figured veneer production.

 

 

Here are some ident links:

Essex Biodiversity Project - Black or Water poplar

 

http://www.cheshire-biodiversity.org.uk/useful-resources/pdf%20black%20poplar%20id%20(Read-Only).pdf

 

And here are some pics:

 

 

 

Summer & winter (same tree):

 

 

 

 

A fairly biggun - check out the adjacent powerlines

 

 

A real biggun:

 

[sean]

nice one giles.....a fine thread well resurrected:thumbup:........saves me doing it this month or last or the one before that.

 

will look at some stuff to contribute.

[Giles Hill]

An old trooper:

 

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

that last picture on the first post i think i recognize, although ive never seen it from that angle....its at monks eleigh right?? its been topped at around 120ft it looks like from the road and theres significant growth above that point!

[RobArb]

there's a big row of em in manchester i drove past everyday (not any more), will try to get a pic of the beasties... proper gnarly they were, awesome row of trees

[Giles Hill]

nice one giles.....a fine thread well resurrected:thumbup:........saves me doing it this month or last or the one before that.

 

will look at some stuff to contribute.

 

Just read the other thread and saw you'd been busy Sean. I'd been politely waiting for you to start a NBP tree of the month.

[RobArb]

ps, they have been known to be called the "manchester" pop!!

[Giles Hill]

that last picture on the first post i think i recognize, although ive never seen it from that angle....its at monks eleigh right?? its been topped at around 120ft it looks like from the road and theres significant growth above that point!

 

That's the one Steve, the others are in Gt Cornard (Sudbury) and Shelland (Nr Stowmarket)

[Giles Hill]

there's a big row of em in manchester i drove past everyday (not any more), will try to get a pic of the beasties... proper gnarly they were, awesome row of trees

 

I look forward to the pics Rob. I read somewhere the Manchester ones are getting knocked out by something - a virus I think?

[RobArb]

I look forward to the pics Rob. I read somewhere the Manchester ones are getting knocked out by something - a virus I think?

 

 

Venturia populnea i think?